The present invention relates generally to the creation and delivery of messages, and the routing, verification and collection of responses to the messages, using systems and methods that are universally applicable to, and independent of, the type of messaging system and device selected by the message recipients. More particularly, the present invention relates to automating and escalating delivery of messages and collection of message responses, implemented through multiple messaging devices in conjunction with recipient profiles, verification of messages and responses, and collection of responses in a predefined format.
Businesses and their employees are actively involved in sending and receiving information using a variety of messaging formats, systems, and message receiving devices. For example, a traveling employee might, in a single trip away from the office, receive messages sent by fax, pager, electronic mail (e-mail), and voice mail. In addition, the messaging devices by which these messages are actually received might include a pager, a cellular telephone, a paper fax machine, a voice mailbox, or a portable computer connected to the Internet or to a private local area network (LAN). Often these messages will vary in their level of importance. This could affect the delivery methods and/or the nature and timing of any needed response to the message. For example, the arrival of an e-mail message from a particular sender might cause the recipient to fax a report in response. A message reporting a failure in a mission-critical computer system may need an immediate response from a maintenance technician that the message has been received and will be acted on. A message reporting a fire or other disaster may need to be sent simultaneously, or in a message hierarchy, to multiple members of a disaster response team, with escalating methods of messaging and response gathering to insure that every team member has been notified and has responded in an appropriate fashion. In some group messaging contexts, the post-message processing, organizing, and reporting of multiple message responses can be important in further decision making by the message originator.
Commercially available e-mail systems provide users with a method of creating and delivering digital messages to other e-mail addresses. Attachments of files may also be included with the e-mail message for recipient review. The address selections are sender defined and require entry and updating by the party responsible for initiating the message. Recipients may respond back to the sender's e-mail address, at which point the sender has confirmation that their message was acted upon.
Commercially available unified messaging systems generally replace older communications technology with integrated voice and messaging systems for receipt of communications. Receipt of voice messages in a unified messaging system includes wave file recordings that are accessed by the recipient from an e-mail format.
Other media specific device systems address e-mail to pager, pager to e-mail, e-mail to fax, and e-mail to voice, but do this separately. In a typical conventional system of this type, e-mail messages are created, addressed to specific devices, and sent to those devices using the device-specific translation programs required. Commercially available servers route messages to recipients chosen by the sender for specific types of messaging devices through public-switched telephone networks (PSTN), over the Internet, and at non-peak periods through PSTN using least cost routing methods.
The prior art methods implemented in commercially available unified messaging and device specific systems generally provide one-way delivery, with destinations defined by the sender. Unfortunately, prior art systems do not solve the need for originating a message, with attachment and response requirements, in a manner and format that is independent of the type of the device that is to be used for delivering the message to the recipients. Also, prior art systems do not permit the message delivery methods to be defined by the recipients, and do not include a facility for automatic processing and organization of message responses. Accordingly, the e-mail, unified messaging and specific device systems using these prior art methods are deficient in responding to these requirements.
What is needed, then, is a system and method for automating and escalating the delivery of messages and collection of message responses, implemented through messaging devices of multiple types, in conjunction with recipient rules routing, verification of message delivery and response, and collection of responses in a predefined format.